I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your children and her children will be enemies. You will bite her child’s foot, but he will crush your head.”
Isaiah 57:3 - Easy To Read Version “Come here you children of witches.\par Your father is guilty of sexual sins,\par and your mother sells her body for sex.\par Come here!\par Tuilleadh leaganachaKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Amplified Bible - Classic Edition But come close, you sons of a sorceress [nursed in witchcraft and superstition], you offspring of an adulterer and a harlot. American Standard Version (1901) But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the harlot. Common English Bible Come here, you children of sorcery, offspring of adultery and prostitution! Catholic Public Domain Version But come here, you sons of the prophetess, you offspring of an adulterous man and a fornicating woman. Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version But draw near hither, you, sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and of the harlot. |
I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your children and her children will be enemies. You will bite her child’s foot, but he will crush your head.”
\{God says,\} “Look at Jerusalem. She was a city that trusted and followed me. What caused her to become like a prostitute? {\cf2\super [12]} She does not follow me now. Jerusalem should be filled with fairness. People living in Jerusalem should live the way God wants. But now, murderers live there.
The nation of Israel is full of guilt. This guilt is like a heavy weight the people have to carry. Those people are like bad children from evil families. They left the Lord. They insulted the Holy One (God) of Israel. They left him and treated him like a stranger.
“You people have escaped from other nations. So gather together and come before me. (These people carry statues of false gods. These people pray to those useless gods. But the people don’t know what they are doing.
Come here and listen to me!\par I was there when Babylon began\par as a nation.\par And from the beginning, I spoke clearly,\par so that people could know what I said.”\par
You go up to those places\par and offer sacrifices. {\cf2\super [442]} \par
Then they will come every day\par to worship me.\par And they will want to learn my ways.\par They will become a nation that lives right.\par They will not quit following\par God’s good commands.\par They will ask me to judge them fairly.\par They will want to go to God\par \{for his fair decisions\}.\par
The Lord spoke to me during the time King Josiah was ruling the nation of Judah. The Lord said: “Jeremiah, you saw the bad things that Israel {\cf2\super [15]} did? You saw how she was unfaithful to me. She did the sin of adultery with idols on every hill and under every green tree.
Judah did not care that she was acting like a prostitute. So she made her country ‘dirty.’ She did the sin of adultery by worshiping idols made out of stone and wood.
This was the Lord’s first message to Hosea. The Lord said, “Go, marry a prostitute {\cf2\super [1]} that has had children as a result of her prostitution. Why? Because the people in this country have acted like prostitutes—they have been unfaithful to the Lord.”
I will have no pity on her children because they are the children of prostitution.
“So, I (the Lord) will block your \{(Israel’s) road with thorns. I will build a wall. Then she will not be able to find her paths.
Then I will come to you—and I will do the right thing. I will be like a person that is ready to tell the judge about the bad things people did. Some people do evil magic. Some people do the sin of adultery. {\cf2\super [19]} Some people make false promises. Some people cheat their workers—they don’t pay them the money they promised. People don’t help widows and orphans. {\cf2\super [20]} People don’t help strangers. People don’t respect me!” The Lord All-Powerful said these things.
You snakes! You are evil people! How can you say anything good? The mouth speaks the things that are in the heart.
Evil and sinful people are the kind of people that want a miracle {\cf2\super [217]} for a sign (proof). But those people will have no sign—only the sign of Jonah. {\cf2\super [218]} ” Then Jesus left that place and went away.
“You are snakes! You are from a family of poisonous snakes! You will not escape God. You will all be judged guilty and go to hell!
Many Pharisees {\cf2\super [37]} and Sadducees {\cf2\super [38]} came to the place where John was baptizing people. When John saw them he said to them: “You are all snakes! Who warned you to run away from God’s anger that is coming?
People came to be baptized {\cf2\super [48]} by John. John said to them, “You are like poisonous snakes! Who warned you to run away from God’s anger that is coming?
So you people are not faithful to God! You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. So if a person wants to be a part {\cf2\super [18]} of the world, then he makes himself God’s enemy.
So we can see who God’s children are. Also, we can know who the children of the devil are. The people who don’t do what is right are not children of God. And the person who does not love his brothers and sisters \{in Christ\} is not a child of God.